Zephryus owns and wears a small amulet, a family heirloom: a small blue crystal set in a silver setting, usually worn on a chain or leather thong. It’s got both an interesting history and interesting abilities.

History

A form of crystal exists on the world the Coyenas come from, called Amasethyst. It is extraordinarily rare, and has unique crystalline properties.

Harrison Wallace was one of Zeph’s ancestors on his father’s side, a coyote and a self-styled frontier adventurer in the 1800s. One day he found himself in possession of a sizable piece of blue Amasethyst crystal he’d won with a lucky bluff in a game of poker at the saloon he was staying in at the time. Recognizing its value, he determined not to sell it, but to keep it in his family line as an heirloom; he had it secured into a silver setting and wore it on a chain around his neck at all times, to ensure its safety.

As he finally settled down and raised a family, he passed it on to his oldest son; and he passed it on to his oldest daughter; and so it went for several generations. As its relative value increased, its owners felt compelled to keep it locked away in a secure location to prevent its theft.

Eventually it came to Boreas. Being a clever student of science at a prestigious university, he knew Amasethyst’s properties and how they related to particles and mass, and began to wonder if there was some to secure the amulet without having to keep it locked up at all times. After researching and testing, he came up with a creative and surprisingly effective electronic security system built into the amulet’s setting to ensure it could not be stolen from his family (see Properties, below). As his career in biotechnology advanced, he began to ponder more amusing possibilities of the crystal’s mass-field-affecting properties, and added the growth abilities the amulet now possesses (again, see Properties, below).

Boreas had fun with the enhanced amulet as a toy, but when it came time to pass it on to his oldest son, Zephyrus, he had no compunction giving it up.

Properties

Security. The amulet’s security system is built of three interconnected systems. First, a simple accelerometer detects when the device is in motion. Second, a circuit generates a field around the amulet, keyed to search for particular components of Boreas’ DNA. (The specific genes he chose to look for are also present in his offspring, making the system work for any of his children or descendants.) If the accelerometer detects motion AND the field circuit cannot detect its wearer’s DNA within a radius of about three meters (or if the amulet is moved outside that sphere), a third circuit Boreas devised generates a field within the gem which increases its mass exponentially, eventually and effectively rendering the gem immobile.

Anyone attempting to either steal the amulet away from any member of the Coyena family, or trying to steal it from their home while they’re away, will find it an unmovable chunk of mass.

Size-increasing. Expanding on the mass-field-affecting properties of the crystal, Boreas first figured out how to allow its user to increase his overall size, almost limitlessly. Over time he added more refined features, like focusing on increasing muscle mass, in increasing the size and mass of only specific parts of the body.

The “interface” is controlled mentally by a small circuit that operates on the wearer’s brain’s electrical field. Due to the crystal’s structure, size-changing effects only last so long as the amulet is being worn or is in close physical contact with the wearer. Also, the interface is mental and requires a modicum of conscious thought; it’s easy enough to maintain with some practice, but the effects will wear off if the wearer falls asleep or otherwise becomes unconscious.

Unreliability. Zephyrus quickly found that because Boreas had gradually hacked together the amulet’s various systems in his spare time, it can sometimes be a little flaky, and may trigger itself on occasion — whether because of an errant thought on the wearer’s part, or an influx of some outside influence, or just because of a random glitch. It doesn’t happen often enough to usually be a problem, but it has been known to cause a few amusingly embarrassing situations.

Final Word

If this all seems implausible? Remember that on Zephyrus’ world, science and magic are intertwined and inseparable, making such seemingly ridiculous things possible.

See also: Rules of Growth for more information about limits and stipulations on magic and science.